Scott City man opens Kapuha Press to tell his stories, help others tell theirs

When one local man had a series of novels written, he didn't approach a traditional publisher or use a self-publishing service. Instead, he decided to start his own publishing company to lend legitimacy to his own work and give other authors a chance to succeed with him.

Michael Ignacio Jr. of Scott City said he has many stories to tell, and an avid interest in cultivating creativity.

"In 2015, I had a need to become published. I wanted to make my voice heard. I thought about self-publishing, but, I thought, why not help others too?" he said. So he formed an LLC and works from his home, both writing his own books and working under his title of creative director.

Ignacio chose the name Kapuha (pronounced kap-OO-ah) from Pacific Islander Chief Kepuha, who lived in Guam in the 17th century. He was the first Roman Catholic Chamorro chief during the Spanish Occupation of Guam. His name means "to uphold."

"You can see this was a meaningful word to me for a lot of reasons," Ignacio said. "It's an idea that honors my roots and will let me help others."

A selection of books Michael Ignacio Jr. has published through his company, Kapuha Press, are seen Thursday at Cup 'n' Cork in downtown Cape Girardeau.Laura Simon

Ignacio said he wants to captivate his audience's attention and inspire creativity, imagination and passion through the implementation of effective storytelling.

"We're trying to encapsulate imagination," he said.

Ignacio said he wanted to give others an environment to grow and enrich themselves.

"I could have just submitted my manuscripts to Amazon and clicked 'publish,'" Ignacio said. "But I wanted to do more than that. I wanted to help others, too. So many people have a story that needs to be told. I want to help them, if I can."

He works with editors and beta readers to polish the manuscripts.

Michael Ignacio Jr. poses for a photo with copies of the books he has published through his company, Kapuha Press, on Thursday at Cup 'n' Cork in downtown Cape Girardeau.Laura Simon

Ignacio published his first novel, "Wrath of the Forgotten," in September 2015. "Witch's Theft" was published in December 2015, "Out of the Shadows" in January 2016 and "That Which Dragons Fear" in May 2016. In October, "The Death Goddess" was published.

"We've been very busy," Ignacio said.

"Wrath of the Forgotten" has been produced as an audio drama, available on Audible.com.

"I've done some voice work, and I really wanted to do this story as an audiobook, but I didn't want to read the entire work myself," he said. "I'm not believable reading a woman's part, for instance."

Ignacio knew some people who had experience with voice work, so he held auditions and found actors.

One of those actors was Emily Waters. A former co-worker of Ignacio's at Southeast Missouri State University's Learning Enrichment Center who had done some acting work, she auditioned and was cast as Radanashi Rayko.

"The acting part was fine, because I had experience," she said. "It was in a different medium where I was portraying only with my voice, so that was an adjustment. It was a fun challenge, though."

She said she enjoys working with Ignacio.

"Working with Michael is phenomenal. He's really understanding, too. He's great," Waters said.

Jonathan Hanks, who voices Daisko Nori, said the experience has been great for him.

"I've loved getting to exercise my voice range," he said. He wants to continue voice acting professionally and said working on the audio drama has been interesting and fun. "Working with other cast members and with Michael has been amazing."

In addition to publishing Ignacio's novels and audio dramas, Kapuha Press also produces anthologies. Ignacio said essentially he wants to audition authors who might be interested in publishing a full-length novel with the press.

"We didn't want to have a slush-pile situation," he said, referring to submitted manuscripts most publishers must sort through to find prospective authors. "We decided this would be a good way to figure out if we could work with the authors, too, find out how they worked with contracts and deadlines before we had a lot invested in them and their work."

The first anthology, "Small Town Tales Vol. 1," was released in November. Plans for a release party are in the works; Ignacio hopes to have an event by the end of February. The second anthology, "The Rogue's Gallery," is scheduled to be released in early February.

Ignacio said he hopes eventually to expand into other arenas, such as animation of stories, and full-length novels by anthology contributors.

"Sure, it's ambitious, but how else do people become successful? Nothing in life is done without courage," he said.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630